BLOOMFIELD -- Bloomfield officials will move forward with plans to build a parking deck downtown, despite a landlord’s attempt to block the seizure of his property located on the deck’s potential site.

On Thursday, township leaders held a press conference in response to a December lawsuit filed in Superior Court in Essex County by Anthony Ellenbogen, who owns four properties on Lackawanna Place. For the past two years, the township has argued that Ellenbogen’s property, located near the train station, is the perfect site for a parking deck to serve commuters.

“We feel this property is a key component to Bloomfield’s revitalization,” said township spokesman Jeff Meyer.

Bloomfield said that it tried to negotiate with Ellenbogen as it drafted its downtown redevelopment plan, which has been in the works for almost a decade.

Officials said the plan will revitalize about 13 acres downtown, adding a parking deck, residential and retail units. The township did not disclose the number of spaces that would be included in the garage, but said there would be retail spaces on the bottom floor.

The township said it is in the process of drafting an exact plan and has acquired private developers for many of the properties.

For more than a decade, the township has been trying to acquire properties to develop its downtown. But it ran into repeated legal hurdles and unforeseen expenses in attempting to condemn properties in the redevelopment zone.

On Nov. 9, Bloomfield sold all the township parking properties to the Bloomfield Parking Authority, and also granted the authority the right to acquire properties through eminent domain for the sake of township parking projects. The move prompted Ellenbogen’s lawsuit, the second he has filed in the past three years regarding the township’s development plans for downtown.

The township said it hopes to continue negotiations with Ellenbogen.

“We will not condemn any property,” Meyer said. “We will work deals with owners to exchange or buy their properties.”